Were you seriously injured by a negligent person in Florida and have questions about our 5 personal injury tips for you? Give us a call now.
1) Choosing The Right Personal Injury Attorney
We had a client in Hillsborough County recently that asked a common question: How do you decide on an attorney? There are so many options out there. Who should you choose as your lawyer? To me, the number one thing is communication. The client has to trust their lawyer, so you definitely want to be able to speak with your lawyer.
If you go in for a consultation, you want to have an opportunity to speak with a lawyer and ask them about the case. Every case is different. Every case has its own elements that have to be proven. Some parts of your case may be different from someone else’s, and you’re not going to figure that out without good communication with your lawyer. You want to be able to talk with them and ask them questions, you want those questions to be answered, and you want to know that they’re on your side. That’s how you develop a trust relationship.
We’d love to help you with your personal injury case. We offer free consultations. Give us a call.
2) Personal Injury Settlement Timeline
We got a call from a client recently in the Tampa area and they asked how long it takes to settle a personal injury case. They had already been working with the adjuster. The answer to that is patience is a virtue. Some cases can last three or four months, depending on the claim, and some cases can last three years. It doesn’t mean that the case that’s three years old is any worse or better than the case that lasted for three months. Every case is different, and a lot of it depends on what the insurance companies are offering.
The benefit of hiring a trial lawyer is that we are able to evaluate the case in terms of what it would look like in front of a jury. Many times, insurance companies do not offer you maximum value. In order to get maximum value, sometimes you have to file a lawsuit. The end stage from the lawsuit to the end is the trial. Every case is different.
Medical treatment is dependent on the severity of the injury. The client that called in Tampa had to have surgery, so his case had already been a year out. Every case is different. We’d love to help you with your case. We offer free consultations. Give us a call.
3) Initial Offer For a Personal Injury Case
We had a client in Tampa that hadn’t hired a lawyer yet and was dealing directly with the insurance company. This is common and happens all the time. The client asked us if they should take the first settlement offer. The answer, inevitably, is usually no, unless the insurance carrier is offering the policy limits, and even then you should have it evaluated by a trial attorney. The reason is that insurance companies only take into account what the bills are. That’s the easiest part of your case. Anybody can add up their medical bills that were related to the accident.
The real value of hiring a trial lawyer is the evaluation of the other elements of the claim, which include the future medical bills you’re reasonably certain to incur, items like pain and suffering, which nobody knows the exact value of. Before you settle your case, it is of extreme benefit to hire a trial attorney who is able to evaluate your case and let you know how good that settlement offer is from the insurance company.
We would love to help you out with a personal injury case. If you have any questions, give us a call.
4) Expert Witnesses in a Personal Injury Case
We had a case that went to trial recently and the client asked a great question. It was a case in Hillsborough County in Tampa, and the client asked, “Why do we have to hire these expert witnesses? What is the role of an expert witness?”
There are so many different types of expert witnesses. In the context of a personal injury case, it usually means a medical expert, but there are also experts that deal with the forces of a collision, as well as biomechanical experts and human factor experts. For trial lawyers, the role of the right, qualified expert is they can assist the jury in reaching a decision. If you have herniated discs in your neck, you can talk about your pain all day, but the expert witness – a radiologist, for example – would come to trial and talk about why he or she believes that that herniated disc was caused by the accident.
It’s a tough game, and insurance companies will hire their own experts, so, many times, trials become a battle of experts. If you hire the right trial attorneys, they’ll know what experts need to be hired that will assist you in getting the maximum value in your case. Give us a call. We would love to give you a consultation and talk to you a little more about personal injury cases.
5) Personal Injury Case Going to Trial
We got a call from one of our clients in Tampa recently who asked whether or not we thought their case would go to trial. We’d had the case for a couple of months. That’s a very hard question and, really, you can’t answer that right away. You may ask, “Then why do we need a trial lawyer?” Well, because a trial lawyer can evaluate the case as if the case is going to be presented in a trial setting.
Quite frankly, most cases do not end up in trial, though a small percentage do. When you have the benefit and the backing of a trial lawyer, however, the insurance companies look at that and realize that these attorneys are going to try to get the maximum value for their client.
I’d love to help you out with your case, and I’d love to evaluate it. We offer free evaluations for personal injury claims. Give us a call.
Were you or a loved one seriously injured by a negligent person in Florida and have questions about our 5 personal injury tips for you? Contact experienced Florida personal injury lawyers at Serrano Law today for a free consultation and case evaluation.
Serving clients throughout Tampa Bay and Hillsborough County
Like Us on Facebook